Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the cost of the NHS Citizen scheme has been to date; and what assessment he has made of its success since its creation.

A total of £4.2 million has been spent on the NHS Citizen programme in 2014-15 and 2015-16 and the programme has a budget of £1.3 million for 2016/17.

The Department’s annual assessment of NHS England in 2015-16 states that NHS England has made good progress against its duties to involve patients and the public. In the Department’s previous assessment, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State praised the positive work of the NHS Citizen programme and how it is building on its strong brand by expanding activity to ensure that Citizen Voice is locked into NHS England priority delivery areas and in the development of Sustainability and Transformation Plans.